D'Arsay Archive

Notes

In 2370 the USS Enterprise discovered a rogue comet which had originated within the D'Arsay system some 87 million years earlier. Soon after the find, strange artefacts began to appear on the Starship bearing symbols of an alien language. The crew quickly realized that some kind of alien computer program had been loaded into the main computer from within the comet. Captain Picard ordered the outer layer of the comet melted away; inside there lay a huge metallic object covered with the same symbols that had appeared on the ship.

The transformations continued; Lieutenant Commander Data, the ship's android officer, underwent changes to his positronic brain which drastically altered his personality. Large sections of the Enterprise were recreated in the form of the alien culture.

Captain Picard surmised that the archive was recreating personalities from its culture within Data. Picard was able to uncover the relationship between some of the characters and use this to convince the dominant personality - Masaka - to release its control of his officer and the ship. With the archive dormant, the ship's chief engineer was able to disable it permanently. The Enterprise proceeded on its way while Starfleet despatched an archaeological team to study the archive.1